Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
The Forward Book of Poetry 2020 brings together a selection of the best poetry published in the British Isles over the last year, including the winners of the 2019 Forward Prizes – and a foreword by jury chair Shahidha Bari.
What I learned is that people quite like you listening, valuing the small things they say. The questions I ask are all intended to take people to positive places. They’re intimate without being invasive, which is key. In this programme, William meets Rebecca who has been experiencing a loss of control in her life due to serious illness, Sarah whose 18 year old triplets are about to the fly the nest and head off to university, and Suzanne who is coming to terms with her role as carer within her family. For example, Elizabeth Bishop's One Art is placed in Self-Image and Self-Acceptance. In this heart it mainly lives in Love and Loss, though it spends time in Mental and Emotional Well-Being as well as three others. Of the seventy-four conditions, the one for which he prescribes it is Letting Go. It makes sense but so do dozens of others. But it had to be done somehow, there are no prescriptions without conditions. So I learned to stop trying to rewrite what isn't mine: to Let Go. Because poetry. It has become routine for me to make some sense of this bizarre situation we are all living through by sharing a poem: to see the beauty, love, nature and power of this world. The poetry I read often focuses on the positive and that is a great equaliser at a time when so much seems negative. For years now, Alma has been the Emergency Poet, travelling around British festivals and literary events in an old ambulance, and giving one-to-one consultations. Her ‘patients’ share what ails them, and she then prescribes a healing poem.The brief answer is that I did a degree in creative writing in my forties, then did an MA a few years ago. I’ve had a poetry collection published, Dirty Laundry, which was me writing through a difficult – well, an abusive – relationship. And I worked with people with dementia for a few years, using poetry to assist communication. That’s how I ended up doing Emergency Poet: a combination of all of those things. And bloody-mindedness.
And yet Ben Jonson has found something to say, and it is a comfort. He tells us that the value of our lives is not dictated by their length, or their solidity. Living like an oak tree, becoming ancient and huge and eventually toppling over under our own weight, is not the only way to live a good human life. For all that the oak is strong, it will never flower. The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.' In-person consultations with Deborah are by appointment and the price includes tea or coffee and some cake, a copy of The Emergency Poet – An Anti-stress Poetry Anthology , as well as some other suitable poetic prescriptions in a Poetry Pharmacy bag . What intrigues me about Philip James Bailey’s wonderful poem We Live in Deeds is its call to action. There’s something intensely motivating about the idea that we might fit a whole life’s worth of living into an hour, if only we had the courage. So often we are paralysed by our fears, concerns, worries and ‘what-ifs’, and we forget to dread the ‘what-if-I-don’ts’ instead.There are those among us who are lilies. They may be destined only to last for a summer’s day, but they are, as Jonson says, the plant and flower of light. Their beauty is not constrained by their fragility, and nor is their impact diminished by its brevity. Their life, though it may be short, can still be perfect. In fact, it may be in part because they are with us for such a brief time that they manage to move us as they do. I ask about books that had particular meaning, or that they loved as a child. Or I take them to really lovely places by asking something like: When was the last time you stood by the sea, or in the countryside or a beautiful place where you felt properly rested? Then they go to that place, in their mind.
The final session is a collective celebration. We’ll share the fruits of our new habits, and marvel at just how many different ways our group have found to bring more poetry into both our own and others’ daily lives. For William, this potentially life-changing encounter is an illustration of the extraordinary power of the poetic form to provide catharsis and make our human experience bearable and less lonely: The only reason I have rated it 4.5 instead of 5 is because a lot of the conditions seemed repetitive. Also, as much as these were considered the main conditions, I find that a number of ‘critical psychological conditions’ have been left out. Credit to him though; he asked for suggestions at the very end of the book and he tried to be inclusive as well. To be fair, I don’t think it was possible to capture it all! When I first started listening to The Poetry Pharmacy, I was blown away, and wanted to open my Goodreads profile just to rate it before I had even finished it. I absolutely loved it! In a way, I am glad I didn’t. To capture the true depth of something, sometimes we need to immerse ourselves in it fully, get the whole picture and not just that which appeals to us most. Having said that, it was still amazing, albeit less applicable to me towards the end.The first session will explore ideas about why poetry matters and how it can help us navigate uncertain times. We’ll learn how to adopt a beginner’s mindset, discover new voices, broaden our tastes, and experiment with different ways of reading a poem.
Great Deal 
New Comment